About Growing Forward
See photos from our launch event below!
Now in its 18th year, Chicago’s award-winning multimedia public-affairs series returns in 2008 with Chicago Matters: Growing Forward to examine how the choices we make today impact our environment and the future of our region.
Over the next 25 years Northeastern Illinois will experience major growth – 1.2 million new jobs will be created and as many as 2 million new residents will join the 8 million people already living here.
Anyone currently living in the area knows that our shared resources are already under strain: we spend some 253 million hours and 151 million gallons of fuel just sitting in traffic jams. Our public transit system is the nation’s second largest, but has faced funding shortfalls and an increasingly decrepit infrastructure for decades. If current projections are accurate, as many as 23 townships may suffer water deficits of varying severity by the year 2030. Meanwhile the region’s buildings are the source of the largest portion of greenhouse gas emissions to our atmosphere.
Chicago Matters: Growing Forward will explore the fundamental ways we are connected through our region’s shared resources—the land we live on and the way we travel, the air we breathe and the water we drink, the food we eat and the waste we generate. We’ll take a critical look at emerging strategies for resource use and management at multiple levels—public, private and personal. As the region grows, who can best manage these resources—the city or state government? Private industry? Community organizations? How do we propose to maintain access to shared resources? What does going green mean to our region? How is it linked—in terms of our technologies, industries and day to day lives—to sustaining the current rate of growth in the region?
The series will explore these issues and examine what we are doing to tackle the growing environmental problems facing the region.
Key topics:
- How current growth trends will impact the region’s environment and quality of life.
- Who environmental degradation and climate change impacts most.
- The health of our region’s water supply and alternatives to current supply systems.
- Our interconnected transportation systems and their ability to deliver goods and services efficiently and sustainably.
- The region’s future energy needs and the state of alternative technologies.
- Successful models of sustainable development in our region, nationally, and abroad.
Launching March 3, 2008, Chicago Matters will feature year long, original programming by our multimedia partners: WTTW11, Chicago Public Radio, the Chicago Public Library and The Chicago Reporter.
WTTW 11 will feature Chicago Matters: Growing Forward stories on its nightly news magazine Chicago Tonight every other Tuesday night throughout the year. Segments will examine growth and sustainability issues through both field reporting and in-studio discussions.
Chicago Public Radio will air feature reports, essays, personal stories and two documentaries on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Eight Forty-Eight and Worldview.
The Chicago Reporter will publish three investigative stories—one in May and two in September with additional Web-only reports.
Chicago Public Library will explore the topic of sustainability and the environment by examining the past, present and future. The Library’s exploration of these topics will be enhanced in several ways, including: special book and media collections in a number of branches; hosting community forums; presenting programs featuring authors, subject specialists and artists; and hosting eight book discussions throughout the summer.
Chicago Matters: Growing Forward Launch Event—March 3, 2008—Access Living
On March 3rd, The Chicago Community Trust and its media partners launched the 2008 Chicago Matters series - Growing Forward with a reception for Trust grant recipients and organizations working in the area of sustainability. The reception was held at the new Access Living offices located on Chicago Avenue. Trust Executive Committee member and the architect for Access Living’s space, Jack Catlin, shared the building’s concept - to combine principles of both universal and green design, one of the first in the country. Paula Crown, also a Trust Executive Committee member and philanthropist, spoke about the importance of educating the public on environmentally sound policies. More than 115 guests got a sneak peek at the series’ yearlong programming as the media partners presented samples of stories and events to come. The Trust also recognized outstanding Trust supported projects which have furthered the sustainability of the Chicago region, a basic tenant of the original Burnham plan of 1909. Daniel Burnham “himself” made a surprise appearance and offered his insights that inspired his plan.
Initiated and funded by The Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Matters is an annual exploration—via television, radio, print and community dialogue—of an issue of broad concern to the Chicago region.
